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The purpose of this paper is to present an organizational engagement model that highlights the design process of the homeroom teacher (HRT) role in Israeli high schools.

The model was constructed as a grounded theory during a qualitative research work conducted during 2007-2011.

The model is based on Maslow's and Schein's frameworks of personal needs and organizational culture, respectively, as well as on the principal's role.

The authors propose that the model contributes to the literature on organizational behavior and leadership in general and to the study of educational organizations in particular, in three ways: first, it stresses the principal's role in the design process of leadership roles; second, it deepens the understanding of the concept of engagement by examining it through a qualitative lens; and third, it suggests a hierarchical organizational engagement ladder for the HRT role.

This study aimed to examine teachers’ perceptions of their principals’ organisational citizenship behaviours (POCB hereafter), for which a POCB measure was developed, and to examine its association with the teacher performance outcomes: job satisfaction, organisational commitment, intention to leave the job and strain. The study relies on Bandura’s (1977) social learning theory to demonstrate that the principals’ extra-role behaviour is likely to become a modelling role that affects the teacher outcomes.

Data were collected from two groups of teachers, comprising 365 and 246 participants, in 4 stages. Initially, a self-reported questionnaire that assessed the teachers’ perceptions of the principal’s OCB was developed based on interviews with 15 principals (stage 1; POCB). This was followed by an exploratory factor analysis (stage 2; N = 365) and a confirmatory factor analysis using structural equation modelling (stage 3; N = 246). Pearson correlations and linear regression analyses were calculated between POCB and the teacher outcomes (stage 4; N = 246).

The POCB measure demonstrated adequate construct validity and emerged as a reliable correlate of teachers’ outcomes. POCB was positively associated with job satisfaction and organisational commitment and negatively associated with intention to leave the job and strain and emerged as a predictor of these teachers’ outcomes, regardless of their characteristics.

The study provides evidence that teachers perceive POCB as an important behaviour for improving teacher outcomes. The results suggest the significance of principals’ extra-role behaviour in enhancing teachers’ job-related attitudes and have implications for educational principalship practices.